MICRONAUTICAL BOAT DESIGN

Wavewalk’s new S4 Duo microskiff signals a paradigm shift in the small-boat market, namely Jon boats, microskiffs, and yacht tenders.  It introduces both Portability and Versatility into the popular mainstream category of small boats for  1-6 passengers, and by doing so it makes these boats more useful, as well as easier and more fun to use.

Captain Larry Jarboe experimented with attaching together two and more Wavewalk boats, including the W700 kayak and the S4 Microskiff. He went as far as attaching three S4s together and host a dolphin-watching party with half a dozen passengers on board his ad hoc multi-craft.
In the years following these experiments, Wavewalk tested a few boats made from two S4 Microskiffs attached together, with crossbars and without them, and these experiments yielded the revolutionary S4 Duo.

A revolution in small boats?

Indeed it is, since the S4 Duo solved multiple problems that owners and users of small boats have been struggling with for many years.

Problems Solved –

1. Comfort in Choppy Water and Increased Seaworthiness: The passengers on board microskiffs, Jon boats, and dinghies feel mildly comfortable sitting in them when they travel on flat water, but this changes when the water is choppy, since sitting benches, inflatable hulls and even cushioned captain seats with armrests and a high back rest fail to provide people who sit on them with adequate means to balance themselves. This ergonomic problem leads to uneasiness and sometimes seasickness, and in extreme cases it can cause a passenger to lose balance and fall overboard, or worse, flip the boat. This doesn’t happen to people who ride the saddle-seats of personal watercraft (PWC) a.k.a Jet-skis, and passengers onboard S4 Microskiffs who ride similar seats. No other type of seat offers its users such level of self-stabilization. Riding is the most stable and ergonomic position for people who travel on horseback, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATV), and snowmobiles, and the S4 Duo design incorporates this fundamental ergonomic principle.
   Passenger Comfort and Balancing Capability greatly affect a small craft’s Seaworthiness, and in this sense, the new S4 Duo is more seaworthy than boats of comparable size, and many bigger boats. Simply, you don’t get seasick in an S4 Duo, even in waves, and this improvement is no less than revolutionary.
2. Car-Top Transportation, Manual Carrying, and the Freedom to Launch and Beach Anywhere: This has been a motto for Wavewalk clients since they started motorizing their W500 kayaks in the first decade of this century, but a kayak is not a full size boat, and even the roomy S4 Microskiff isn’t one. But the S4 Duo is, and in fact there are few boats its size that offer its carrying capacity of 1,200 lbs I.E. 6 adult passengers.
   In terms of both Carrying and Transportation, the owner of an S4 Duo deals with a pair of nimble and extremely lightweight boats, and not with one heavy boat that’s hard to move over land, be it a parking lot or a dock, a road or a sidewalk, a sandy or rocky beach, or a path winding in the woods. The implications of this capability are far reaching, since S4 Duo owners are free form using trailers and boat ramps, meaning that they can save a significant amount of money by not investing in a trailer, and more importantly, save precious time and aggravation by launching and beaching elsewhere than in boat ramps, which is priceless.
3. Going Where You Couldn’t Go Before (and others still can’t…): Mobility in Boating is not limited just by waves, currents, and places to launch your boat. There are other factors that impede people and even prevent them from traveling by boat, and these factors can be shallow water such as in tidal areas and shoals, marshy areas, and shallow lakes. Additional factors are dense vegetation, whether above water (E.G. mangroves) or underwater, a rocky bottom, and other obstructions such as fallen trees, logs, and rocks. The ability to instantly split the 76″ wide S4 Duo into two ultra-lightweight 100 lbs and 38″ wide (kayak-size) S4 Microskiffs can make a big difference in your mobility, because a narrow craft is easier to move in tight places, and if the water is too shallow, rocky, or weed infested, the crew members of the two S4 Microskiffs’ can always get out of their boats and pull them.
   Some readers may think “why bother?, because there’s plenty of water for everyone, but if you ask anglers who specialize in shallow water fishing, or hunters who go after waterfowl, they will tell you that these new capabilities in boating are priceless.
4. Going on Water Independently From Other Group Members: Whether it’s a family or a group of friends, people have different preferences, from bird watching and photography to paddling, fishing, hunting, or simply touring. At times, some want to visit their friends, or a location that has little interest for other embers of the group. Having one boat at their disposition cannot fulfill the needs of all group members, especially not at the same time, unless this boat is the S4 Duo, which can serve as such, namely a full size microskiff, or yacht tender, or as two smaller motorboats and/or kayaks, canoes, or dinghies. Problem solved, and in a manner that’s substantially better than owning a common full-size boat and a pair of kayaks, or canoes, etc, since an S4 Microskiff can carry three adult passengers onboard whether it is human powered or motorized, and even a very large size kayak isn’t fit for this.
5. The Yacht Tender Conundrum: A yacht is a leisure boat that’s 33 ft in length, or more. By law, it has to carry a smaller boat onboard or in tow, in order to allow the evacuation of its passengers in case of emergency. Practically, a dinghy, whether rigid or inflatable, is the only means that yacht passengers have to access beaches and overcrowded docks, or to reach their yacht if it is moored.  Typically, boat tenders are small and uncomfortable. They are propelled with oars or a small outboard motor, and they have little use apart from a service boat for the yacht passengers to use together, as a group.
   The S4 Duo introduces a new level of service to the yachting world, not only because it is more capable and comfortable than a dinghy, but also because it offers passengers independence from each other, as they can split their S4 Duo into two smaller craft, and go to different places, whether motorizing or under paddle. The S4 Duo can be towed behind the yacht, hauled on board if the yacht is big enough, or hauled on deck as two small-footprint S4 Micrsoskiffs . The possibilities are endless…

In sum, this article makes the case for the S4 Duo being a revolutionary boat that promises boaters a lot of good things. And as things go with useful inventions and technical improvements, with time, users discover and perfect new usages, and in this case they will do it while having fun.

• What is the full and correct definition of the term Microskiff, and by what does a microskiff differ from a skiff, or a motor kayak?
• What are the propulsion and design characteristics of a microskiff, and what are these small watercraft used for?
• What problems are different types of microskiff associated with?
• What is the difference between a portable microskiff and a car-topper one?

The article entitled Microskiff provides clear and full answers to these questions and to other questions as well. It encompasses all subjects that are relevant to understanding what microskiffs are about, including a history of their evolution over the past two decades.
As the microskiff market matures, it is important to provide the public with better tools to understand and evaluate various types of microskiffs, their design characteristics and possible usages, and the main difference between between them and other fishing watercraft.

The article is a must-read for anglers who are new to fishing from small boats and kayaks, as well as for seasoned kayak anglers and people who have been fishing from small boats for many years but still find it hard to see the full picture in terms of what this market offers, including advantages and disadvantages of each type of boat in terms of fishing, transportation, and cost of ownership.

Wavewalk’s S4 is known mostly for being a stable, high performance, ultra lightweight (only 100 lbs!) motorboat, I.E. microskiff, but it’s also an accomplished human-powered craft, and surprisingly, a very versatile one:

The S4 is a 38″ wide true catamaran (twin-hull), and as such it is most stable and as well as an excellent tracker. Both these capabilities make it easy and convenient for paddling, and the fact that it features a 15″ high saddle seat adds leverage and power to every paddle stroke. The S4 cockpit’s downward sloping sides allow for paddles to move smoothly along them, and convey to the paddlers the feeling of the cockpit being narrower than it actually is.

The S4 works perfectly as a canoe, both in the solo and tandem modes. In fact, it works better for canoeing than traditional canoes do. For example, the S4 can go in choppy water of up to 2 ft, while most canoes won’t do in such conditions. Its catamaran hulls provide extreme stability as well as excellent tracking, and the 17″ high hulls provide adequate free board and relative dryness even in the ocean.

The S4 excels as a kayak as well, and people who prefer paddling in the kayaking style, namely with dual-blade (kayak) paddles, benefit from all the above listed advantages, plus the fact that unlike kayaks, the S4 is totally back-pain free, since its users ride an ergonomic saddle seat, instead of being artificially restricted by the uncomfortable L position.

When it comes to stand-up paddling (SUP), the S4 outperforms every SUP paddle board in terms of stability, thanks to the fact that its users can rely on a true, full catamaran twin-hull, with their feet positioned lower than the waterline, instead of on top of a board, several inches above waterline, as they are with SUP boards.
One, two, and even three S4 users can paddle it standing using both SUP paddles and long dual-blade (“kayak”) paddles, as seen in this video:

On top of this, the S4 is easier to pole in comparison with other microskiffs and flats boats. This is due not just to the fact that it’s the most lightweight miscroskiff out there, but also thanks to the fact that the user stands with their feet lower than waterline, which adds leverage and power to every push, and helps keeping the boat going in a straight line (tracking), as catamarans typically do.

In sum, whether you have a canoe, kayak, or SUP paddle on board, the S4 will work very well for you, and the same is true if you have a push-pole.

This setup works perfectly, but to get it to this stage isn’t easy.

At 100 lbs, the S4 Microskiff is the world’s most lightweight high-performance microskiff, and its official power rating is up to 6 HP. So why try to overpower it? The answer to this is related neither to hydrodynamics nor to engineering, but to human psychology: Some of us like speed. We enjoy traveling fast, and the faster the better.
And while the S4 running a 6 HP is pretty fast, it’s faster with a 9.8 HP motor, providing you succeed in getting it ready for running such a bigger, heavier, and much more powerful motor.
Such project would include beefing up the boat’s transom, as well as blocking and plugging every way that spray and water can shoot up from the propeller shaft area and into the back of the cockpit, which isn’t a trivial project.
This post’s featured image (see above) shows parts of the structures added at the back of the transom, between the hull tips, and around the motor’s shaft itself.
Read more: S4 Microskiff Powered By A 9.8 HP Tohatsu Outboard Motor

Bear in mind that any boat that’s powered with a motor, or motors that exceed its official power rating is considered overpowered, and in some states overpowering a boat is illegal. Needless to say that anyone who wishes to overpower their boat should first check the legal status of such a project in their state.

Also, not all outboard motors in the 10 HP class are suitable for use with the S4. The two things you need to check are the weight of the motor, and the size of its propeller shaft. After this examination, two motors make it to the finish line: the 9.8 HP Tohatsu, and the 9.8 HP Mercury, each weighing 85 lbs. Remember that the S4 works only with 20″ Long (L) shaft motors.

Typically, small craft powered by 10 HP motors are limited to speeds of up to a little over 20 mph, at best, and this can be achieved only on perfectly flat water, and with a lightweight driver. In the case of the ultralight S4, the driver is the heaviest part of the trio comprising boat, motor and driver, and due to hydrodynamics that favor lightweight vessels, the driver’s weight has a most noticeable effect on the boat’s speed, for better and for worse.
Outfitting the motor with a propeller of the biggest diameter and pitch will certainly help, but considering the motor’s max RPM and propeller’s slippage, the chances of going faster than 20 mph are very slim, and for heavy drivers they are practically zero.

Pros and Cons of a big motor –

• Cons – Potential legal issues in some states, technical issues including non-trivial ones related to safety, a bigger motor is much heavier than the recommended 6 HP motor, and for many people this could be a problem in terms of carrying it.
• Pros – Driving an S4 microskiff powered by a bigger motor is more fun, at least for someone who likes speed and is capable of safely driving such craft.